Stickbug
Dev Description: "The 5th hero...The Stickbug Wizard! This magic user relies on slow, but very powerful attacks and magic abilities." Description: Stickbug is a hero that comes with the DLC "The Grandmasters." His alternate is Leafbug (originally Katydid). Stickbug makes a great support hero and offers high single-target damage, as well as excellent abilities (or spells as they seem more of). His strength comes in his damage and various unique spells. In fact, his level-up skills are considered the best in the game. One his many unique spells are the wards, which are small areas of magic that do a specific action to bugs walking over it. He also has 3 staffs that he can buy and equip/dequip. Each have there own strength and weakness. Stickbug's biggest problem may be his speed, slow firing rate and lack of durability, which makes it easy for him to get attacked. He is also considered very hard to use in Coliseum due to this fact. However, if players use the right spells at just the right time, Stickbug may not even get a scratch. Skills and Equipment Weapon: 'When he hasn't upgraded to the other, more powerful staffs, Stickbug begins with a simple, balanced, long range staff with no name. It fires around every two or three seconds, so you'll need good aim because if you miss, the enemy might already attack you before you can fire again. Instead of upgrading his weapon, he upgrades his rank. At first, Stickbug appears as an Apprentice, who has slow, yet powerful attacks. For 800$, the usual, Stickbug can upgade to Mage, which increases his damage of all staff attacks. Upgrading again to Sorceror will increases damage even further. Everytime he upgrades, his necklace becomes more intricate, as well as a couple other tiny visual differences. Stickbug also carries a magic book in his hand. If you look closely, you'll see that every time he fires his staff or casts a spell, he looks at his book for a split second before firing or casting. '''In-Game Descriptions: ' Apprentice- Damage: Heavy. A low level wizard with a slow, yet powerful attack. Upgrade to Mage to increase damage of all staff attacks. Mage- Damage: Heavy. A medium level wizard with more powerful magic. Upgrade to Sorceror to increase damage on all staff attacks. Sorceror- Damage: Heavy. The Merlin of all bugs, is there anything this Wizard can't do? '''Level-Up Skills: '''Stickbug can upgrade skills that mainly focus on increasinf effectiveness of his abilities and attacks. Unfortunately, he doesn't come with any skills that increase his durability that much or his speed. Firstly, he has Health (increases max by 30 and heals by 60), then Mana (decreases the cooldown of every ability Stickbug has to offer), Spell Blast (increases chance of adding an explosive blast to staff attacks, knocking back enemies with a large AOE) and Focus (increases the chance of doing more damage with an attack or damage-based ability). Mana is sometimes considered the best skill in the game. At full level, most abilities will have their cooldown halved, or very close to half. Don't forget that focus also allows abilities to have extra damage, which is a nice, unique touch. Lightning Storm can do a lot of damage when combined with Focus and its damage bonus at night. '''Recommended Level-Up Skills: '''Put some points into Focus to upgrade damage, then start upgrading Mana (especially if you are using Stickbug's abilities the most). When they are done, start upgrading Spell Blast. It is great for keeping enemies away. Lastly, go for Health. Abilities '''Fortify '''drastically decreases the damage your base takes from grubs. It can be a temporary replacement for a forcefield turret, and is very useful when in trouble. Recommended by Oxynidus as well. 800 dollars, 80 second cooldown. '''Poison Ward '''slows down and damages enemies that walk on it. It is generally considered worse than Snare Web, but better than Slime Grenade, due to having a larger area. Useful if you need to slow down a large group of bugs or block off a large chokepoint. '''800 dollars, 80 second cooldown. Damage Ward '''can be very useful when used effectively. Use ranged heroes with it, like stickbug, because you'll get swamped trying to fight melee. '''1000 dollars, 80 seconds. Protection Ward heals 200 health, but is very difficult to use. You must stay in the ward the whole time, which makes it difficult. Do not use Protection Ward with melee heroes, and activate when a round is ending and you have a lull. 1000 dollars, 100 seconds. Lightning Storm rains bolts around stickbug, which damages enemies that are hit. It is useful very when you are feeling overwhelmed by numeroues medium sized bugs. With such a low cooldown, Lightning Storm has many uses. It is definetly recommended, and it's especially useful when the map is crowded. Does extra damage at night. 800 dollars, 60 seconds. Freeze is many peoples' favorite ability. It covers an area in ice, which damages enemies who were in its radius and then stuns them. If a group of bugs is attacking you, or heading for your base, freeze them and wipe them out with a hero. The numerous situations Freeze can be used in, as well as high damage and stun time, make it a great ability. It isn't like Spider's Snare Web where bugs who cross over it after being placed will get effected. Freeze only affects the enemies in the way when you cast it. 1000 dollars, 80 seconds. Earth Staff ''' is a rarely used staff for Stickbug. It gives him armor and a melee attack. However, it does much less damage than his normal attacks, and stickbug is too slow and fragile to melee attack. While Earth Staff tries to fill a gap in Stickbug's arsenal, it is not powerful enough to do so. For Leafbug, who is rarely used, Earth Staff would be an acceptable option. However, for Stickbug, Earth Staff is not a good choice. '''1000 cost, ~2.5 seconds between attacks, medium damage. Phase Shift '''is a typical teleport ability, with a large area. It's damage and knockback is OK, but most people agree it is too weak to be used offensively. The teleportation range is less than Ant's, but its defensive qualities are much higher than Ant's, having damage, a longer stun and larger knockback. This ability may be better or worse. It is entirely up to the player's preference. '''600 cost, 30 seconds, lite damage. Wind Staff 'is another equippable weapon which uses the same damage and also increases Stickbug's speed. This remarkable ability makes this useful for important dodging. The attack also increases the knockback, which can send a Centipede to the air when Spell Blast occurs. The bad case is that the wind that that is fired is hard to see, making it a bit confusing. Stickbug also receives more damage, but this doesn't matter since dodging is easy. It is worth it. The only disadnatage of it is that it can scatter big groups of bug that are standing in the same place, which is usually not something that you would want. '''1000 cost, ~2.5 seconds between attacks. ' '''Asteroid field rains asteriods across the entire map. It is considered weak for its cost and cooldwon by the holy god, Oxynidus, therefore, it should not be used. You could also get unlucky and not damage powerful enemies. 1200 dollars, 120 second cooldown, potentially heavy damage. Fire Staff may be more useful with Leafbug, who loses the extra damage of Focus, but is still significant for Stickbug. This equippable weapon fires a line of fire, which flies at incredible speed, taking a small fraction of a second before it goes too far. This can easily kill an Armour Ant in early game, and can kill higher level enemies if focus is included. The biggest problem is it's incredibly slow firing rate. This makes aiming annoying, since the time between attacks makes you forget exactly where to fire. Stickbug is also more vulnerable, which can easily be noticed. But, it is magnificant for Leafbug, who has high regen, meaning the vulnerability doesn't matter once breathing space has been found. On a final, useful note, this staff also increases his range to almost Ant's Goggles. 1000 cost, 4 seconds between attacks, very heavy damage. Earthquake is very much like Beetle's. Every enemy on the screen is stunned for about 7 seconds. This, of course, is very nice for the times when a hoard of say Scorpions or Giant Grubs are near. This is one of the best abilities (but definitely not the most unique) abilities Stickbug has. You may also kill some weakened enemies with this. 1500 Cost, 150 second cooldown, medium damage to all enemies. 'Recommended Basic Loadout: '''Fortify, Lightning Storm, Freeze, Phase Shift and Wind Staff. '''Recommened Advanced Loadout: '''Damage Ward (''you can make a ranged hero kill a lot of bugs, however don't use a melee hero with this), Lightning Storm (very useful and can be used at many occasions. better to use at night), Freeze (very balanced and overall useful, also high stun), Wind Staff (it boosts your speed, making it overall useful. Also allows for semi-rapid shooting when you constantly switch. Requires skill, but it's worth it.) and Earthquake''. (This will get rid of all fleas and grubs in the map unless you're in a very high round''). Category:Heroes Category:Ranged Heroes